Modern electronics, such as smart phones, personal digital assistants, location based services devices, digital cameras, music players, servers, and storage arrays, are packing more integrated circuits into an ever shrinking physical space with expectations for decreasing cost. One cornerstone for electronics to continue proliferation into everyday life is the non-volatile storage of information such as cellular phone numbers, digital pictures, or music files. Numerous technologies have been developed to meet these requirements.
Various types of non-volatile memories have been developed including electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) and electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM). Each type of memory had advantages and disadvantages. EEPROM can be easily erased without extra exterior equipment but with reduced data storage density, lower speed, and higher cost. EPROM, in contrast, is less expensive and has greater density but lacks erase ability.
A newer type of memory called “Flash” EEPROM, or Flash memory, has become popular because it combines the advantages of the high density and low cost of EPROM with the electrical erase ability of EEPROM. Flash memory can be rewritten and can hold its contents without power. Contemporary Flash memories are packaged in standard sized packages with ever increasing pressure on capacity within the package. As a result, device capacity is increasing and the packaging techniques are becoming more difficult as more devices have to be put into the standard package outline.
As commercial innovation continues, many new products are being developed that incorporate combinations of chips, such as processors and memory. The different technologies used to develop these devices may not be suitable for including them on the same silicon wafer. In order to facilitate rapid and reliable product development and manufacturing, these devices may be packaged together in a single enclosure. Many of the latest products have standardized the type of memory or accessory devices that they can interface with. In order to maintain the standard format some devices must be redesigned to support a second geometry of a popular interface device. This development can be very costly and create delays in delivering new products.
Thus, a need still remains for an integrated circuit package stacking system. In view of the demand for higher capacity memories in the standard package formats, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing consumer expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is critical that answers be found for these problems. Additionally, the need to save costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures, adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.